I have the May 1979 edition of the USRSA newsletter "The Stringers's Assistant". It has full instructions on how to string a racquet by hand. You could order your gut "medium tight or very tight". Tension was judged, on mains, by plucking the string and listening for tone.

I have the May 1979 edition of the USRSA newsletter "The Stringers's Assistant". It has full instructions on how to string a racquet by hand. You could order your gut "medium tight or very tight". Tension was judged, on mains, by plucking the string and listening for tone.

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And then on the crosses, it was gauged by the sixe of the lumps formed by the staggered mains.

Aren't we all fortunate to live in a time where we can scrutinize the smallest of unnecessary details?

The old timer that sold me a Serrano stringing machine back in 1968 , (also taught me to string), also had a machine that just clamped the racquet, and he kept a large diameter wooden dowel next to it. He said he would wrap the string around the dowel, and pull the string by hand, and push an awl into the hole of the wooden racquet to maintain tension. When I asked him how he could be accurate with the lbs. requested, he told me that he could pull whatever anyone asked for with reasonable accuracy, as he did that since he was a little kid.It was very interesting at that time.Was the same person that taught me the a knot that they refer to as the pro knot now, told me no one in the area uses that knot and would distinguish my work from others. He was right at that time..

A guy I sometimes hit with is from India and he said when he was younger they would retighten old strings by hand. I'm still not sure how the hell he did it even tho he told me how. It wasn't making too much sense.

The club where I play at hosted a very big squash event and there was this Indian guy there who was stringing his racquet by hand between matches. It was awesome! He plucked each string a few times and listened to the tone. He would close his eyes and listen to the tone then either clamp the string or increase or decrease tension until he reached his desired tension. He won the tournament so he must have been doing something right. He told me that he would hum the tone that he wanted and if it matched then he would clamp it and tension the next string.

This actually article pasted by YULitle came from a Popular Science book my Grandfather gave me. I like the reference to Chestnut. Just try to find Chestnut wood? Since the blight that killed off the Chestnut Tree about 50 years ago!

This actually article pasted by YULitle came from a Popular Science book my Grandfather gave me. I like the reference to Chestnut. Just try to find Chestnut wood? Since the blight that killed off the Chestnut Tree about 50 years ago!

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I must of taken a trip back in time.. I saw a few last week. The American ones died off, but small ones are around then as the get older they get hacked.

I must of taken a trip back in time.. I saw a few last week. The American ones died off, but small ones are around then as the get older they get hacked.

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Yes - American Chestnut

Early in the 20th century, chestnut blight was introduced to North America by the importation of Asian chestnut plants. This resulted in the subsequent destruction of an estimated 4 billion American Chestnut trees over the next 40 years, and what had been the most important tree throughout the east coast was reduced to insignificance. (From Wikipedia)